Stores busy as Colo. prepares for major snowstorm, up to 20 inches possible

DAN ELLIOTT

Published
12:00 am EST, Friday, February 3, 2012

DENVER (AP) -- Shoppers stocked up on food and liquor, students and state lawmakers got a snow day and airlines canceled scores of flights at the Denver airport as a slow-moving snowstorm crept into Colorado.

Snow began falling Thursday night, and forecasters said it could keep coming until Saturday morning.

A blizzard warning was issued for northeastern Colorado, where forecasters said up to 20 inches of snow could fall. Sustained winds of up to 30 mph could bring visibility to zero and make travel all but impossible.

Cities in the Front Range urban corridor from Colorado Springs in the south to Fort Collins and Greeley in the north were under a winter storm warning.

Forecasters said up to 22 inches of snow could fall on Denver by Saturday morning, with up to a foot in Colorado Springs and 15 inches in Fort Collins.

The forecast prompted Colorado lawmakers to cancel legislative work on Friday.

Also canceled were more than 150 arriving and departing flights at the Denver airport that had been scheduled through Friday night. Many school districts announced they would be closed on Friday, including the two largest, in Jefferson County and Denver.

The storm could break into the top 10 list of the heaviest snowstorms in Denver history. The city's 10th biggest dumped 22.1 inches in 1912, National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Gimmestad said.

"We're looking at 36 hours of snow, maybe a little more than that" from this storm, Gimmestad said.

Denver's record is 45.7 inches from a 5-day wallop in 1913.

More than a foot of snow was forecast at the Winter Park ski resort, while other ski areas were expected to get 3 to 9 inches.

Up to eight inches of snow was forecast for a swath of southern Colorado including Pueblo and Buena Vista.

A Learjet ran off a runway at the Pueblo airport as the storm moved in, but investigators hadn't determined if the weather was a factor. None of the 10 people aboard was injured, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas were also predicted to be hit by the storm

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